Do you ever wonder how some paintings get selected for an art exhibit and others don’t? Artists do wonder! Specially when you start looking at all the accepted art.
How is art selected? We do not know how other organizations do it, but we do know how the art was selected for the NOAPS Spring 2015 International Online Exhibit. It is only fair to share that information with you.

Best of Show “Fortress Cove” by Rick Delanty 40×30 Oil and Acrylic

Is there subjectivity in jurying art? Of course there is! The concept of beauty in art is difficult to determine. One needs to just look at art throughout its history to find out that beauty in art is not only evolutionary within one culture, but it also varies from culture to culture. A piece of art painted in an Impressionistic style in 1860 would have been considered bad art at that time, while a Monet painting today is highly appreciated and valued in millions. An Aztec sculpture of Quetzalcoatl will not generate the same emotional reaction in a 21st century viewer living in New York as it did to an individual rooted in the beliefs and values of the Aztec culture. However, beauty in art is not only evolutionary and attached to the values of a culture, but it is also influenced by individual tastes and personal concepts of beauty. After all, they say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Much has been discussed about the concept of beauty in philosophical terms, but much is still being discussed. No certain conclusion has been achieved except, may be, a connection between beauty and a feeling of harmony, balance, and rhythm.

Merit Award: “They have eyes but do not see ears but hear not” by Marc Chatov, 60×44 oil

Nevertheless, the artist intention might not always be to provoke a feeling of harmony and balance. A lot of the times, the artist’s intention might be to provoke a controversial reaction, to analyze a situation, to depict a critical political or social event, or to simply react to the whim of creativity without a purpose or a goal.
Having said all the above, how was art selected for NOAPS Spring 2015 International Online Exhibit?
In order to eliminate as much subjectivity as possible, seven artist members and non members of the NOAPS organization were asked to select the TOP 150 paintings from the 625 entries received. These seven artists were purposely selected for having different styles of painting. NOAPS prides itself on accepting the high standard of all art styles. Each of the seven jurors individually scored each painting in a scale from 1 to 7. This means, the maximum score a painting could have achieved was 49. Well, not even one painting achieved that score! Not even close! There were only very few paintings in the lower 40’s, but the majority of the paintings fell in the 30’s and 20’s range. The cut-off for acceptance was a score of 34 which means an average score of 5 per judge. This was difficult to achieve! If there was a tie at 35 or 34, then the artist with no entry accepted until that point was given priority over one already accepted. There were only a few cases of two paintings accepted for the same artist. They represent the ones that receive top scores with both paintings
Once the step above was completed, the TOP 150 entries were reviewed by the Awards Judge, Timothy Tyler, who chose the awards in each category.
NOAPS appreciates all eight jurors for their tough decisions and we want to thank all participants. Congratulations to all TOP 150 artists accepted… you have gone through the eyes of eight jurors!